Johnathan Thurston never ceases to amaze with his uncanny ability to turn nothing into something special on the rugby league field.
Last night at Skilled Stadium on the Gold Coast the 28-year-old skipper created three of the five Indigenous All Star tries in their 36-28 loss to the NRL All Stars – the annual fixture to kick off the season.
In four quarters played at a cracking pace, Thurston was my standout even though winger Nathan Merrett was awarded man-of-the-match for two slashing tries, and just missing a third.
The difference between the two very talented footballers? Thurston is the creator, Merrett the finisher – both extremely good at what they do best.
But this was Thurston’s night.
In the sixth minute, Thurston opened the scoring by deliberately holding his pass as the defence moved up quickly, before firing his pass away cutting out full-back Matt Bowen to put Justin Hodges in the clear. An unhurried Hodges gave the final pass to winger Jharal Yow Yeh.
Pure Thurston magic.
In the 29th minute, Thurston was moving left on the quarter line, saw nothing was on, so kicked right. It was pin-point accurate, bouncing in-goal for a flying Bowen to take it on the rise and crash over close to the dead-ball line.
More Thurston magic.
And more of the same in the 57th minute. Thurston received a long pass from half-back Chris Sandow to flick-pass it onto Greg Bird who was in the clear and Greg Inglis finished it off. The ball was in Thurston’s hands for a milli-second.
The recently-retired Darren Lockyer has rightfully been rated consistently the best rugby league player of the last decade. His career stats support that praise.
But in my book, Thurston is right up there with his Kangaroo and Queensland team-mate. Lockyer was a class goal-kicker earlier in his career, but not in the same class as Thurston who is deadly accurate his side of halfway.
I’ve had the privilege of watching the South Sydney hey-days of Clive Churchill, Jack Rayner, and Ian Moir through to John Sattler, Ron Coote. and Bobby McCarthy. And the Saints dominance for a world record 11 successive premierships with Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Norm Provan, “Poppa” Clay, Ian Walsh, and Ken Kearney.
And Easts under Jack Gibson with Bobby Fulton, Russell Fairfax, and the legend the All Stars played for last night – the Arthur Beetson Trophy. Or Parramatta, also under Gibson, with Peter Sterling, Ray Price, Mick Cronin, Brett Kenny, and Eric Grothe.
Add the greatest winger in either code Ken Irvine, and they are just few wonderful memories of the long gone past. Magnificent footballers.
Johnathan Thurston will be remembered in the same way. Barring injury he still has plenty in the tank, we’ve not seen the best of him yet.
And that will place him in the Immortal category.
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